Play yards are used to contain and provide a safe environment for a child for sleeping or playing. Typically, play yards are collapsible so they can be stored or transported easily. Currently, play yards are manufactured with a frame that consists of a combination of assembled metal and plastic components with a fabric body that wraps around the frame to provide an enclosure to retain the child within the play yard. Play yards can be equipped with a bassinet assembly that can be supported by the play yard frame to establish an enclosed sleep area at a higher level than the bottom floor surface of the play yard to provide an easy access to the child without requiring the caregiver to bend to access the floor of the play yard.
Play yards are often provided with an elevated changing table on which an infant can be placed to position the infant at an elevated position for the convenience of the caregiver changing the infant's clothes. Changing tables include a frame that is supported on the frame of the play yard. Typically, the height of commercially available changing tables is fixed relative to the frame of the play yard so that the movement of the changing table frame will not create a head entrapment situation as defined by ASTM F 406-08 5-16. This is an ASTM standard that requires openings between frame members of structures holding children to be sufficiently large as to allow the passage of a large probe sized to replicate the 97th percentile dimension of a 3 year olds back of head to tip of chin dimension, or to be smaller than a small probe sized to represent the dimensions of a 5th percentile, six month old child's head.
Complying with such an ASTM standard limits the movement of the changing table as the frame of the changing table and the frame of the play yard must remain, at all positions of height adjustment to either permit passage of the ASTM large probe or prevent passage of the ASTM small probe. Accordingly, conventional changing tables will have the range of movement such that the frame of the changing table will not be far enough above the frame of the play yard to allow the ASTM small probe to pass between the two frame members. Alternatively, the changing table will remain sufficiently far above the frame of the play yard that the ASTM large probe will always be able to pass between the two frame members. In the first instance, the range of movement is limited to only a few inches. In the second instance, the changing table will be positioned too high to provide a convenient and efficient usage.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a play yard/changing table structure that will allow a larger range of vertical movement that will allow the frame of the changing table to be raised above the frame of the play yard to height positions that with present designs create head entrapment violations as defined in the ASTM specifications.
A bassinet is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,336, issued to John Mariol on Sep. 10, 1996, as being mountable onto the frame of a play yard with legs of the bassinet being received within the legs of the play yard. The Mariol bassinet is sufficiently large as to cover the entire upper portion of the play yard such that the bassinet and the play yard would not be simultaneously usable. Furthermore, the Mariol bassinet is not height adjustable with respect to the frame of the play yard.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2002/0166169 of Michael Longenecker, et al published on Nov. 14, 2002, discloses a changing table for a play yard in which the changing table is pivotable about a transversely extending horizontal axis to be movable between an operating position and a storage position. Since the Longenecker changing table is not height adjustable, the base frame of the changing table and the play yard are fixed relative to one another. Similarly, a pivotable changing table mounted on the frame of a play yard is disclosed in U. S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0130237 of Johsua Clapper, et al published on Jun. 23, 2006. Like the Longenecker changing table, the Clapper changing table is fixed relative to the frame of the play yard and is pivotable about a transversely extending, horizontal pivot axis to permit the changing table to move between an operative position and a storage position.
A height adjustable changing table mounted on the frame of a play yard is shown in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2005/0150053 of Curtis M. Hartenstine published on Jul. 14, 2005, in which the changing table is movable through a range of positions through a rack and pinion mechanism with the lowermost position of the changing table being well above the frame of the play yard. The changing table is also pivotable about a transversely extending, horizontal pivot axis to move between an operative orientation and a storage orientation.
It would be desirable to provide a changing table structure that would be mountable on the frame of a play yard and be movable between positions where the frame of the changing table can be located above the frame of the play yard a distance greater than the dimension of the ASTM small probe.